Tired of hearing me rant about antivaccinationists? Actually, I’m a bit tired of ranting about antivaccinationists myself, but a blogger’s got to do what a blogger’s got to do when an event like Jenny McCarthy’s “Green Our Vaccines” rally pops up. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t take a break and indulge myself for a moment. Apparently I missed it last week when it appeared, but a mid-season trailer for Doctor Who has been posted, and it looks really promising for a rip-roaring send-off to this season. I haven’t yet managed to watch last Saturday’s episode yet because of my sojourn to ASCO, but that’s in my plans for one night this week to get caught up again. There are spoilers in the trailer (although if you’ve been watching, one of them shouldn’t be too surprising); so be forewarned and decide for yourself if you want to risk watching:

Any true fanboy should be able to guess who the villain is in one of the last scenes. If you can’t, then you’re not a true fanboy…

Bernard Cribbins first appearance in Doctor Who was in the second movie they made back in the era of Billy Hartnell It starring Peter Cushing as the Doctor. Cribbins was a hapless British Bobby who stumbled into the TARDIS to report a crime and got caught up in a Dalek adventure.

Orac, the problem is seeping into medical schools! My summer student (rising 2nd year med student) read a magazine article about vaccines and autism; apparently he thinks there’s something to it. I pointed out the facts but seriously! if young med minds can be so molded, what’s going to be in the future?

It would probably mean that there’s a vaccine that has actually been co-opted by aliens wishing to take over Earth, take over humans, feed on humans, or something along those lines, not that vaccines in general are a problem. 😉

Actually, the last time we saw Davros, he was specifically established as surviving — if you pay close attention in “Remembrance of the Daleks” (a 7th Doctor serial), you can see him get into an escape pod, which is shown departing the Dalek ship right before the Hand of Omega destroys it. Here is Davros’ fate in each serial where he appeared:

“Genesis of the Daleks” — apparently exterminated by Daleks who turned on him for asking for not being totally Dalek himself and asking for pity for a normal Kaled who had been his faithful assistant. The base was then sealed off by the Thals, trapping Davros with the Daleks. One would think it would be hard for him to survive being a) exterminated and b) trapped with creatures who want to exterminate him.

“Destiny of the Daleks” — survives, and is put into suspended animation before being sent off with a bunch of humans to stand trial for war crimes (basically, for creating the Daleks in the first place, since he’s been unconscious for everything since then)

“Resurrection of the Daleks” — is trying to reach an escape pod, but appears to be killed by the Movellan anti-Dalek virus; the ship is destroyed

“Revelation of the Daleks” — survives, but is taken away by Imperial Daleks to stand trial and presumably be executed for leading a splinter faction of Daleks loyal to him

I’m probably going to get flamed here, but I’ve begun to wonder if Doctor Who has jumped the shark. Yes, today’s special effects are awesome and it helps that the BBC is spending more than a couple of pounds on production. BUT . . .

One of the things I’ve always admired about the series was that it used to be pure adventure. And the Doctor was always male, and always had all these hot (mainly) female assistants, yet the writers didn’t need any kind of sexual tension or innuendo in the stories, which I thought was brilliant, and one of the main reasons I’ve been a fan of the show since Jon Pertwee.

Today’s Doctor is a homewrecker. We watch the assistants’
families dysfunction before our eyes, even as the assistants go with him willingly themselves (Oh, and it’s such a conflicted decision for them to join him now). We see how “left-behind” assistants are screwed up for life and need therapy (Sarah Jane). We all know the Doctor is totally in love with Rose, no matter how many positive things he has to say about Martha and Donna. The Doctor intervenes in the inevitable conflict that ensues whenever past and present assistants run into each other. And last week’s preview suggested he has fathered a child now? Shades of Scrappy Doo! Am I on the wrong channel? Like Oxygen, or Lifetime, maybe? When did the *assistants’ families* become such an important part of the show? How far removed, how hard up for ideas can you get?

The writers at Doctor Who need a vaccine for more creative, sci-fi adventure and less reliance on the old chestnuts of human conflict and sex.

Bernard Cribbins first appearance in Doctor Who was in the second movie they made back in the era of Billy Hartnell It starring Peter Cushing as the Doctor. Cribbins was a hapless British Bobby who stumbled into the TARDIS to report a crime and got caught up in a Dalek adventure.

*Ahem* Whilst I dislike resorting to full geek mode, the Peter Cushing movie isn’t canon and he’s not counted as a regeneration of the doctor, Wiki details it better

And last week’s preview suggested he has fathered a child now? Shades of Scrappy Doo!

Erm – you should watch the episode before decrying it, it’s not what you think.

Oh c’mon, it’s not much of a spoiler to explain how the Doctor came to have a daughter, given that it’s revealed in the first two minutes of the program. 😉 The short version is that they land in the middle of a war being fought by “children of the machine” — colonists created by taking DNA, splitting it, recombining it, and producing in a matter of seconds an adult individual (preprogrammed with all the information needed to be an effective soldier) who is the child of whoever they took the original tissue sample from. When the colonists see our heroes, they notice that their hands are clean — nobody’s taken a tissue sample from them, so they represent fresh genetic stock. They only have time to take material from the Doctor, and they do it without asking permission or anything.

However, I’d like to point out that the Doctor has been a father before. This is clear from the fact that in the very first episode, way back in 1963, he was traveling with his granddaughter, Susan. Ergo….